Israel Makes New Bid to Engage Iran’s People, Revive Friendship.

Israel is making
a new effort to engage the people of Iran, as the two regional rivals trade
increasingly tough rhetoric and threaten to attack the other in self-defense. Under
that Israeli initiative, the nation's government-funded broadcaster re-launched
Farsi-language radio programming for Iran in January after an eight-month
hiatus. 43-year-old Netanel Toobian, a native of the Iranian city of Isfahan,
is the radio show’s new Israeli director and also serves as a host.

He migrated to
Israel with his family 30 years ago, escaping rising anti-Semitism in
post-Islamic Revolution Iran.Three decades later, tensions between Iran and
Israel have been increasing. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s
website posted a video of him speaking to Syrian visitors on March 1 about his
2015 prediction that Israel, or the Zionist regime as he calls it, will
disappear in 25 years.

“I said that you
[Israel] will not see the next 25 years. By Allah’s favor, that day will come,”
Khamenei said. Five days later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told
American pro-Israel group AIPAC in Washington that he is determined to stop
Iran from becoming nuclear-armed, despite Tehran’s denials that it seeks such a
capability.

“Last week, we
read in the Book of Esther about an earlier Persian attempt to exterminate our
people,” Netanyahu said. “They failed then, they will fail now.” The Israeli
prime minister also struck a conciliatory tone toward the Iranian people,
sympathizing with what he called their suffering, hopes and courage in
advocating for freedom from Islamist rule. “We stand with those in Iran who
stand for freedom,” he said.

Israel’s renewed
Farsi radio programming is another element of its public outreach toward
Iranians. Overseeing that programming is the Israeli Public Broadcasting
Corporation, also known as Kan. It began operating last May as part of a
government reform of state-funded broadcasting. Israel had been producing
Farsi-language radio shows for decades, but they went off the air when the
former Israel Broadcasting Authority closed, just before Kan’s debut.

The previous
Farsi program director, Iranian-born journalist and commentator Menashe Amir,
had served as a Voice of Israel Persian broadcaster for 57 years. In January,
he began directing and hosting his own Farsi news show from his home in the
Israeli West Bank settlement of Har Adar. In a recent
interview with VOA Persian at Kan’s new Tel Aviv studios, Toobian said he has
tried to learn from Amir’s experiences, while also experimenting with a fresh
approach to Farsi programming.

"Our target
audience is the younger generation of Israelis, Iranians — anyone who speaks
Persian and is interested in this marvelous, rich and historic culture,”
Toobian said. “(For them,) we are playing a younger kind of music and raising
more topics that younger people are interested in listening to, or being
involved in.” Since January,
Kan has been broadcasting that content to Iranians live via satellite and
through a live stream on its Farsi web page. It also has been offering
on-demand access to the Farsi shows through an online archive.